Vsevolod Meyerhold - Biochemical techniques.

The project proposal:

As I come up to the end of my two years at Oldham college I've genuinely had the most amazing experience, as a performer and as a person I've changed a lot from when I first stared. I've had the opportunity to be in many style of shows that have improved my skills as an actor and a performer overall. " The Grinch" was the first public show I performed at college, during this Christmas show for young children I was in the ensemble for the first few weeks of rehearsals however some of the second year wasn't reliable and myself and another first year was where given a more substantial part. I played the part of a narrator which I was (for a first year) a huge part for me personally. We then later as the performing arts class asked by Oldham Coliseum to be apart of the community chorus in there local production of Meat Pie, Sausage Roll.  http://www.coliseum.org.uk/plays/meat-pie-sausage-roll/A story about Oldham athletic during 1990 when they won the FA cup. Locally this show was very successful due to it having our own community humour. This was the first professional show I had been with paid actors in a theatre other than at college. The show ran from the 3rd of March to the 25th of March, this being the longest running show I've been apart of. That same time we had pushed back rehearsals for Cabaret the end of year production at Oldham college. In this production I again was in the ensemble as I was also Theatre in education project touring around school in the local area. During Cabaret ; a show I still love today from our recreation my outstanding moment was the end of the first act where I was dragged away creaming while the rest of cast sang "the sun in the meadow". This moment according to the audience members I've spoken to was one the most memorable of the show. When I first stared my second year we as a class we had a short production based in North Korea experimenting with different Brecht techniques. We the later stayed work on the Christmas shows when I was involved in a piece called

" A Rhyme in time for Christmas "where I played the lead "Jane "touring around primary schools. This was particularly difficult for me personally as the rest of my class and friends here in the production Cinderella. Even though I felt that I was missing out after speaking to out tutor realised that it was the best for me to improve my skill and learn new techniques. I also used it as an opportunity to take more of a director roll helping with the level one/two. I was then apart of a  production for the O2 Go Think big project. This piece was particularly hard hitting with me as I resonated so easily with the character I played. As the piece was devised I used a lot of my own experience regarding mental health to help come up with the show. I then later joined Oldham Coliseums Theatre Lab a young company thorough a recommendation from a friend where I'm currently rehearsing for the Crucible http://www.coliseum.org.uk/plays/extracts-from-the-crucible/ playing Mary Warren. And now Animal farm has finished, the production ran from the 14th -15th of June where I plated the character Snowball.

Concept:

Animal farm is based on the book by George Orwell, his book is an allegory for the Russian revolution, that has been adapted to a stage play by Ian Wooldridge, we used the scripted version by the National Theatre Production 1984. The show is set on a farm in England set over the period of at least three years but it's not specified, in the4 beginning the farm is run by a dictorship like character

Mr Jones who is based on the Tsar of Russia Czar Nicholas II, who is later expelled from the farm by the animals. The

three main pigs then later start to run the farm Snowball, Squealer and Napoleon who all slowly become more and more corrupted. This shows the basic fault with communism or in the animal farm universe "Animalism" that despite good intention the its human nature (or pig nature) to want more power. In the end the animals end in worse conditions than what they had when Mr Jones was in power. Our aim for the show is to portray the message to audience that if we are not carefully history will repeat itself as we see now with places like North Korea and even America  if

we compare what happening is what has happened. There is a clear parallel to the past and to now and as actors we didn't want the message of the play to be wasted or thrown away. This show is fr an educated audience and those who go to theatre more often, even though we want to entertain we also have an important message to say and those who don't understand or have an understanding of politics will not enjoy this show.

Evaluation:

To evaluate my performance successfully I will be asking members of the audience that I know to revive the show and tell me what they though overall to help me dissect my performance. I will also be reviewing photos and films from the begging of the rehearsal to the end production. I've also wrote my own note from the rehearsal period as well as the note from out tutors, ill be looking at how the performance changed over time and how I used the criticism to improve as well as having a deeper understanding of context.